Silent Echo
by watchingmewatchingu
Summary: Is trust really the biggest issue in a dolls life? Or is the remembrance of something that might have happened, more important? The story will progress as the show does. *may contain SPOILERS from "Ghost" - " Omega"* Reviews are greatly appreciated
1. With My Life

'_Do you trust me?'_ All of a suddon emotions came rushing at her, from every direction._'This is too much, it's too much.' _The voices from her past just would not leave her alone, they were disrupting her whole existence.  
Her existence? Did she really exist or was she merely yet another empty echo in the world? Was her reality the truth, or was it simply the duration of her own imagination?  
The human existence is only an illusion we create.

_'Do you trust me?'_ One hit, two hits, three hits and she's down. Along with her walls she tumbles to the ground. Simple memories start to flash before her eyes. _'Something fell on me.'_ She realizes that she didn't even put up a fight_. 'Did I fall asleep?_ Slowly she rises up and walks away. _'They won't wake up.' _This is nowhere and nothing matters here. No one cares if you die, because you're dead already.

_'Do you trust me?'_ When she cries, she feels nothing at all. The tears bring her right back home. Always alone, with thoughts she can never fully remember, with fading memories and a clean slate. It seems to never end. This is her life. Everyday she wakes up and starts at square one again. There's no sympathy for someone who does not truly exist.  
She's looking for herself in all the wrong places, by becoming someone else she drowns the distant faces.

_'Do you trust me?'_ It's like being stuck in a recuring nightmare and you can't keep awake. They dump your body in the shallow water, you float to the surface. There is no escape. You feel caught in between. It all leads back to actions having consequences. But the physical world does not make a difference when you take feelings into account.  
Feelings. They're just a concept of revenge.  
We're all being put to the test and we know what we have to do.

_'Do you trust me?'_ She frowned and walked up to the full body mirror and looked at herself. She really examined herself. Dark lines were beginning to form under her eyes. The brown irises somehow seemed darker, her skin looked ugly and old.  
_'I'd like to take my place in the world.'_The few steps that seperated her from the others, were now a miles hike. She glanced down at them. They were all walking around like ghosts. Empty and innocent, childlike ghosts.

_'Do you trust me?'_ Echo carefully observed her fellow comrads, she wanted to memorieze every mark and scar that embellished their bodies._'The world is in need of some serious saving'_ Oh no, there was nothing cliché about her needs, or wants for that matter of fact. _'I want to do everything.' _Yet you already know how this will end, because they live in a world that was built on lies and so they vanish along with it. Only when we have forgotten what it's like to be human, will this be okay.  
Their reality is our escape.

_'Do you trust me?'__  
_If the answer isn't _'With my life.' _then there's nothing worth fighting for.  
Maybe nothing's real.


	2. Did I Fall Asleep?

Echo smiled at the simple thought of remembrance.  
How in the world would she be able to hide something like this from Boyd, or Topher even? They're always talking about 'the clean slate.'  
What happens when the treatment fails us? What happens when we find parts of ourselves in there, somewhere.  
That's what we are.  
Brand new puzzles, sometimes half completed.  
When the puzzles are laid to rest, we tend to fade away with them.

They're trapped within. Awake, yet asleep. Present, yet so far away_. 'Everything's going to be alright.'_ She sighed deeply deeply. _'Now that you're here.'_ Neither trust nor reassurance was the issue in this case.  
Case.  
Such a rare case. Who had ever heard about real live people living in a dollhouse?  
Performing various tasks, only remembering what the imprints would let them, only knowing what was right in front of them.  
Everyday they wake up to another day in the box.  
A box is pretty simple and plain, as are they.  
They chose to abort their lives, they chose to be exiled, they chose to be imprinted with fakeness, which really makes you wonder; how much fakeness can a fake person possess?

In the dead of a freezing winter, when the sky has been painted black and the stars are the only source of light. There will be people wishing on thee as they tenderly fall from their place. But the ones under lock down can not see, the beauty in everything which mesmerize you when you're free.

Do we not come into this world alone? And don't we leave it the same way? It's up to us to find a little company while we're visiting.  
We do need help, we do want support, otherwise we'd have to go at it by ourselves.  
Strangers, cut off from each other, cut off from the world. In the midst of it all, we somehow forget how connected we all are.  
So instead we choose love, we choose life and for a moment, we might feel just a little bit less alone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Echo stumbled to her knees. _'What just happened?'_ She looked around in the crowd of people, in search for a familiar face, instead she found an outstretched hand which helped her up to her feet. "Sierra?" She scratched the back of her head and the rest of the by-standers scattered. "I didn't see you, are you okay?" They exchanged smiles. "Yes, I think so." Echo seemed distraught. "I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Hurt.  
Nobody could ever comprehend the pain that they're going through.  
"Friends help each other out?" That was the conclusion, even though it had come out more of a question than a statement. "Yes, yes they do."  
From this day forward, Echo would stop looking around rooms and wondering who she's supposed to be. "I had a nightmare, I think." Sierra looked on in confusion, as they walked towards the showers. "A night, what?" Echo roughly grabbed her friend, pushed her up against the wall and covered her mouth with her hand. "Shh!"  
A silent agreement fell over them, Echo recovered her hand. "I don't know. I was trapped, inside a room with wonderful colors." Sierra frowned and the expression on her face screamed; disbelief. "I'm in the dark and I can't see."

Echo froze in her steps. Sierra turned to her, she looked concerned. "You don't have to tell me to be scared, I'm already there."


	3. Nightmares

The days went by, weeks turned into months, seasons changed, summer turned to snow.  
Echo and Sierra's friendship had grown stronger and Echo didn't even mind that she was the only one who could remember; _'friends help each other out.'_ And if Sierra was not able to remember, Echo would be the one cherishing all the memories, in hopes that, one day, they could share them together.

"…And he had a daughter. She was the most precious little girl, I didn't want to leave. It felt, right. For once in my life, it felt so right. I've always been reaching for something in the distance and it's been at my fingertips for so long, close enough for me to almost taste it, yet too far away to reach." Echo was litterly bouncing off the walls from excitement.

The car stopped and out stepped Boyd, who escorted Echo out. "She actually, believe it or not, called me mom. In a diffeent life, it might've been a little weird." Boyd looked her up and down. "And you think that you having 'mom hair' had nothing to do with it?" She hit him playfully in the arm. "Shut up." Echo grinned. "It's been a week and it feels so much longer. I feel as though I really know this guy, he could end up being the one. They could be my family, my home, my heart." The elevator doors opened. "Wait for me?" Boyd nodded and smiled weakly. "I'll be here."

Echo's memory had once again been erased. This time it had been different. A lot of the times it had been different, ever since she had begun remembering things, she had had nightmares.  
_'The guy with the little girl, who was he?'_ She couldn't remember his name or his face, just the little girl's. She looked like an angel. Such a beautiful child, but what was it with the little girl and why had she remained, why hadn't she faded away along with her father?

She walked around looking at her surroundings, not with new eyes, but with the same old boring continuity. Everything looked the same to her.  
Same old people, same old shower rooms, same old work out equipment. "Echo?" She spun around, it was Sierra. "Hi. Walk and talk?" She continued to explore the halls of her, what should have been unexplored, home. "Echo, wait. Walk and what?" Sierra ran after.

Snapping out of mental dream, Echo realized that the confusion on Sierra's face was nothing but pure. "It's when you walk and you talk, at the same time, saves you what you don't have, which is usually time. Sorry, it's become a habit." Sierra smiled, still confused about so many things, but she smiled and to Echo that was the most important thing. "Did you have another one of those dreams which you talk so highly of?" Maybe she did not understand and maybe she never would, but Echo liked the fact that she was trying.

"I think I did." She frowned upon hearing her own answer. "What was it about?" They walked towards the shower rooms and something felt so utterly familiar about it. The dream telling had reached its end, without Echo even remembering ever having started it. "…And then the monster growled at me. Metaphor much?" Sierra simply shook her head in agitation. "Echo, I don't understand." Echo patted her friend on the head, as if she were a little girl. "That's the secret to life, replace one worry with another."

Lately she had felt that the words coming our of her mouth, were not really her words. They were simply flowing freely and rolling off the tip of her tongue.  
"The way you speak, I will never get over it." The girls giggled and parted ways near the shower rooms.

The automatic doors closed behind Echo as she entered, she felt untouchable.

She started to wash her hair. "Hello, Echo." She closed her eyes. It couldn't be. "I've been waiting for you." Slowly she turned around, peaked through squinted eyes, but there was nobody there. _'Where are these voices coming from, what do they want?'_ Why did the showers play such a big part in both her memory and her dreams? Was it possible that her past had caught up with her, was someone coming for her? Was she really in trouble?  
There had to be someone she could talk to, someone who would be there for her.

Who did she trust with her life?


	4. Change

"Boyd!" He turned around to find Claire Saunders standing before him. "Hi, hello." She stared down at her feet, letting her hair fall in front of her face,, hiding her scars.  
"Was there something you wanted to tell me?" Claire slightly shook her head. "No, I just. Well, yes. It's Echo. I've noticed a slight change in her." She flipped through the stacks of papers she was carrying. "A slight change huh? Well, good or bad?"

Boyd wasn't the type who worried, because at the end of the day, when it comes down to it, all we really want is to not be so alone. Which meant that he didn't have the time to worry about the little things.  
He tried to keep his distance and pretended not to care about others, by not getting involved in things that didn't concern him.  
When it came to Echo it was different, he cared about her.  
We can pick and choose all we want to, the ones that are still with you at the end of the day, those are the people worth keeping in your life.

"I'm not sure, I wanted you to be the first to know. I think that Echo is, she's starting to remember. It's all coming back to her. The treatments are working, but we can't be certain. Just look at Alpha. Keep an eye on her, for her own good. I like her." Boyd sighed deeply. "Yeah, me too."

If the they only knew, what was really going on.  
They see their superiors as gods or, they see them as monsters.  
The scary truth is that, they're just human.  
Humans by nature, screw up, we lose our way and still we keep on going.

The strongest muscle is the tongue, when in fact it should be the heart. The heart can stop beating cold in your chest. It's the one part of us we try to keep stable. We need it to beat steady and slow, even in our darkest hours, from the dread of something horrible or the anticipation of something completely different.  
Home is where the heart is, always.

As Echo got into the van, Boyd could litterly sense the change in her. "Echo, what's wrong?" She closed the door behind them, they were shielded off from the driver, just the two of them.  
It was time.  
"I don't want my first words to be _'Did I fall asleep.' _I want more." He wasn't surprised by this, he wasn't even taken aback

"I won't be the one to tell you to be fearless. I know that you're eager to soak up new experiences. Slow rides make for boring stories, I know this because I was once like you." Echo frowned upon hearing the words; _'once like you.'_ "What do you mean? You were a nobody, trusted only one person with your life and suddenly had all your memories return to you, after having being deleted, time after time?" Boyd cleared his throat. "What I meant was, I too was once young." Echo nodded, making sure she was fallowing.

"Life is tough Echo, you don't know what's out there, the world is an evil place and you chose to not exist in it anymore. For whatever reason, I don't necessarily blame you. A lot of people would want to fallow in your footsteps, some of them wouldn't know how and most of them are too afraid to take the first step."  
The first step is always the hardest, but once you're there, there's no turning back. And once you get to where you're going, you wouldn't want to have it any other way, because you're exactly where you wanted to be.

"You know, I have a little girl, she's turning four next week. She's all about the fairy tales and happy endings. The glass shoe always fits Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty is awakened with a kiss, Ariel gets her wish granted and at the end she married the prince. Fairy tales, the stuff of dreams are made of, that's how most of us remember our childhoods. The only problem is that they don't come true, it's always the other stories, the nightmares become our reality and the fairy tales become our dreams." Echo's eyes were fixated on him as he spoke so affectionately of his daughter.

"What's her name?" Boyd pondered on weather or not he should tell her. Echo raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. "Well?" He adjusted his tie and took a deep breath. "Kimberly."


	5. Colorful Lies

He smiled upon hearing his daughter's name.  
"Does she know what you do?" He shook his head. "She knows I'm her father and that's all she needs to know, for now."

The van had been in rolling motion for a while, but had suddenly come to a stop. "Are you ready?" Echo hesitated and started to squirm in her seat. "Actually, no. Do I have to?" Boyd placed his hands on her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "Who am I to tell you what you have to do?" They shared a smile, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, their smiles equalled everything they couldn't say. "Coffee?" He opened the door and escorted Echo out. "I've forgotten what it tastes like."

Meanwhile back at the treatment center, Sierra was desperately trying to find her friend. "Where is Echo?" Claire turned to Topher, they searched each others brains for the right answer. Anything they would say would be a lie, so it didn't really matter what they came up with. "Don't worry Sierra, Echo's in good hands and she will be back shortly. Why do you ask?"  
A dreamy smile crept over her lips. "No reason, I miss her, that's all."

Topher looked baffled. "You, miss, her?" He nudged Claire to get her attention. When she looked up at him, their eyes locked. _'What's going on?'_ He mouthed to her. "She'll be back soon." Sierra's smile remained as she walked away.  
"What the hell? Maybe you have something you'd like to share with me?" Claire blushed. "She misses her? Hello, lesbian tendencies!" She wrinkled her nose at his ignorance. "Boys!"  
Topher fallowed her to her work station. "No, not boys. I'm trying to see the bigger picture here. Sierra misses Echo, I repeat. She misses her. She's not supposed to have feelings."

Claire figured he'd find out sooner or later. "It's Echo. I don't want you to go all ballistic over this. I can't be certain, but I have reasons; very good reasons to believe that Echo is changing. She is starting to remember. Before you say anything, yes, the treatments are working. They're just not wiping her entirely clean. With each treatment, a fragment of her old memory somehow returns to her. It's like a trigger and when it goes off, she's rewarded with a piece to her unsolved puzzle."

Echo was standing in line, waiting to order her third cup of coffee. "This time I think I'll try the… Frappuccino?" Unsure of what it was she had just ordered, she retrieved the money she'd been given by Boyd. "Anything else?" Shaking her head no, she handed the cashier the money. "Thank you!"  
Boyd was waiting at their table, he chuckled at the girls excitement over coffee. "You're hopped up on caffeine, you won't be able to sleep tonight." Echo had a sip. "I don't mind, I have nightmares every time I close my eyes, so I'd rather not." She paused mid sentence. "Listen, I had a good day, maybe even a great day and I know that I was the only me in my head."

It seems we have no control what so ever over our own hearts. Any emotion can make the heart pound. Maybe the terror is part of the attraction. When the vitals races off the charts, that's when we start to panic.

"Whenever you think that you can't do this, that you can't do it alone. I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself doing it. All the fear you might possess, will be blocked out." Boyd's phone started to ring, Echo was captivated by the vibrating electronic device. "Excuse me for a minute." She continued sipping on her frappucciono.  
"Hey sweetie, how are you? Yes, daddy's at work. Of course I'll be home to tuck you in. Why don't you pick out a book for us to read? Oh yeah, Cinderella, again?" He winked at Echo. "Alright, I have to go now. I love you Kim, I'll be home soon." The phone disappeared down into his pocket again. "Who is Cinderella?"  
Boyd took her hand and they strolled down the street, walking away from everything, heading nowhere in particular.


	6. Fairy tales

Topher was not happy about the news Claire had just spilled. "The thing about our job is, we're trying to do the unattainable. Perfection is not, attainable. Yet here we are, trying to prove ourselves wrong, every day." Claire knew that he was right, but this was all she had. "I agree with you Topher. We think we can change the world, by trying to change what's in it. People are always going to be complicated creatures and it's not our job to try to fix them. We go through life not knowing what it's all about and when we finally realize it, we only have half of it left."

They watched Sierra circle around below them. "Look at her. She's so lost. Memories are supposed to shape us, they set our fate, our destiny. Memories are who we are, they're what we consist of. Claire, we're taking away everything they are, we're breaking them down."

There was no doubt in their minds, that what they were doing was illegal. Had these people actually signed their lives away? Topher wasn't so sure. "We need to talk to Adelle." Surprisingly Claire agreed to it.

"I don't think you fully understand the outcome of this. You're experimenting with human beings. You'tr trying to create something that does't exist in real life." Adelle smiled at the look of defeat on Topher's face, he knew he couldn't win this fight alone. "They volunteered for this." Claire scoffed in disgust. "We don't actually know that they did. What you have scribbled down on your papers and what you know in your heart, are two very different things."  
She couldn't stand listening to another one of Adelle's lies, even though she was doing the exact same thing. Her work was all she had. Claire stormed out of the office.  
"Claire? Wait!" Topher glared at Adelle and shook his head.

Echo looked up at the sky, she squinted her eyes as the sun hit her face. "Sunshine may bring happiness, but if that's your motto then you've never danced in the rain." She looked over at Boyd. "Rain?" He removed his sunglasses. "You know, after sunshine comes rain?" She thought long and hard, you could litterly see her thoughts taking place on her forehead. "And after rain, the sky is filled with beautiful colors." He put his arm around Echo. "Right."

Just in that second it started to rain, it started to pour down. "Dance with me?"  
There, in the middle of an alley, Boyd danced with Echo until the sun went down.

"Boyd?" It was the first time he had heard her say his name. "I am somebody, because you make me somebody. Because I do what you tell me to do, you share the somebody-ness of me, of what I do."  
It was sweet, she was sweet and he had to go.  
"Echo? I need to take you back. It's time." She shock her head and started to back away from him. "No, no. You can't take me back, not after this."  
His phone rang once more and he screened the call. "Kimberly. If I do you this one favor, do not take it for granted. It's just for a little while longer, then you're going back."

Echo was just happy, putting her treatment off a little while longer.

"Now you're going to meet my daughter, try to act, well you know, act like you got some sense." She had a contorted look on her face. "Straighten up, I'm not opening this door before you act like you have places to go and people to see."

Echo brushed off his shoulders and pulled her wet hair back in a ponytale. "Ready."  
Boyd unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

"Daddy, daddy!" And the little girl was more beautiful than Echo ever could've imagined. "Hey!" Boyd picked her up. "Kimberly, this is my friend. This, is Echo." The little girl giggled and shook Echo's hand. "You're name is a sound." Boyd laughed and so Echo let out a forced one. "Joke? Funny." Kimberly was holding on to her book for dear life. "You know what kid, go get ready for bed and I'll be up in a while." The little girl ran up the stairs as fast as she could, she stopped at the top. "Daddy? I want the pretty lady to read to me." She looked down at Echo with her big hazel eyes. "Okay. Echo, do you mind?" Boyd asked. "No, I'd be happy to do it. She's beautiful."

Echo walked around the living room, letting her fingers drag along the old dusty books on the shelf.  
Then it hit her; _'a room with wonderful colors'_ was the same _as 'after rain, the sky is filled with beautiful colors.'_ Could it be that she had experienced it all prior to the encounter with Boyd, earlier that day? The colors, is what kept recurring in her dreams.  
"Echo?" Boyd smirked and poured himself a drink. "There's a story that needs to be told." He showed her upstairs.  
"Hi, Kim." Kimberly motioned for her to sit beside her on the bed. Echo picked up the book. "So this is Cinderella, huh?" Eagerly the little girl nodded.  
"Once upon a time…"  
Boyd closed the door.  
_  
__'Now her stepsisters saw that Cinderella was truly the beautiful princess from the ball. Falling to their knees, they begged her pardon for how they had mistreated her and Cinderella, who was as good as she was kind, willingly forgave them both.  
Then she was taken to the prince, who found her even more wonderful than before. They were married that very day and lived happily ever after.'_

Echo closed the book and placed it on the nightstand. "Goodnight, pretty girl." Quietly she exited Kimberly's room and made her way downstairs again.  
"She's asleep, I think I want to go home now."


	7. Something's Broken

When Echo returned later that night, the usual treatment was completed as procedure.

"Hello Echo, how are you feeling?" They shared a moment of silence. Her emotionless eyes did not respond and momentarily they lost all spark. "Did I fall asleep?" Despite all the distraction in his head, Topher replied with his scripted line; "For a little while." He firmly believed that any man's finest hour, his greatest fulfilment, is when he's done something selfless and lies exhausted on the field of battle. "Shall I go now?" And that, if anything, is victorious. "If you like." She got up out of the chair and stepped out, without looking back.  
Topher was left, with only the train wreck in his own head.

"Hello." Echo remembered that voice. "Hi."  
Two friends.  
"You look angry." Sierra put her finger in between Echo's eyebrows and pressed down on the wrinkle that had begun to form, when she frowned. "How come I can't remember?"  
It was time for bed, their chambers were waiting. How could she possibly crawl down into that hole of hers and sleep comfortably, when she had experienced a real bed? "You can be angry, it is perfectly okay. But then you get over it." How could she know so much, yet so little? At least Echo had been outside of those walls, really outside of those walls. She had experienced what Sierra never truly would.  
"Never go to bed angry, if you're angry you stay up and fight, but you don't lay your head on the pillow and shut your eyes. Right?"

Their hands touched briefly. "Goodnight." Echo dropped her head and looked up in a inadequate way. "Goodnight."  
Her bed was basically her room, they were locked in for the night. The lights were dimmed, but never fully turned off.  
There was a crack, the hatch was never fully closed, she was never really locked in.  
Echo turned to her side and began to drift off to sleep, when the hatch was pushed open. Even so, she laid completely still. She felt a gentle breath down her neck, it felt soft against her delicate skin. The breathing increased as did her heartbeat.

"You once told me that the secret to life is to replace one worry with another, but I've come to figure out that the actual secret is to just hang in there, until you get used it."  
Sierra snuggled up to her fellow doll.  
And for that night, two hearts, beat as one.

"Mr Langton, a word please?"  
Boyd had a feeling he was in deep shit, nonetheless he didn't let it show. "Of course Ms. DeWitt." Adelle motioned for him to take a seat. "I feel a war coming on. I don't want it to be the good guys versus the bad guys."  
Boyd couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Who exactly, are the good guys here?" She started to circle around him. "The world is a dangerous place to live in, don't you agree? And not because people do evil, but because people sit by and let them." This was becoming ridiculous. "I wanted a change. This project, is like my child. I needed volunteers, these people, willingly agreed to this. If you want a change, you be the change that the world so desperately needs. It is very unlikely that a change will be made on your behalf, if you do not step it up!"

A shard of glass is fixable, but when bigger things break, that's when it becomes a problem. When fragile people break, the world weeps as they watch the pieces float on by.

"Sierra, you have to go now." Echo whispered into the dark. "I was on my way, now I'm not sure where to go." Echo slid the hatch open and Sierra stepped out, when she looked back at her friend she saw her for the first time, in a new light, born again. She was somewhere, seeing something that Sierra could not.  
There was some sort of glow over Echo, the corners of her mouth curled up and it was in that moment that she realized that in the midst of our own existence we will crash in to each other.

"And how was our best girl today?" Boyd stared into thin air. When he finally looked up, Claire jotted down something on a piece of paper. "Echo, you mean? She was, she did good." A weak smile appeared on his lips. Claire folded the paper and slipped it into his pocket. "Don't read it yet. Wait till I'm gone."


	8. Nothing's Changed

When Claire was out of sight, Boyd unfolded the note: _'Just because everything's different now, doesn't mean that anything has changed.'_

They had never met outside of work, but the note said to meet in the underground garage below the Dollhouse facilities. "Miss Saunders, what exactly is going on here?" Claire stepped aside and revealed Topher who was standing behind her. "Okay, for the record, I haven't done anything wrong. If you know her like I do, you would've done the same thing." They assured him that he wasn't in trouble. "So, Adelle didn't put you up to this?" A simultaneously shake of their heads was enough for Boyd.

"What are we going to do? If this gets out, Echo's as good as dead." They walked towards Boyd's car. "How about the two of you bunk up and take a separate vehicle? It might look a little less suspicious." Topher glanced over at Claire. "Yeah? Is that okay? Can I ride with you? Do you mind?"

When we are forced to choose teams in our audlt life, it's nowhere close to being what it was like in gym class.  
Being picked first can be both satisfying and terrifying at the same time, while being chosen last isn't the end of the world, but it still stings a bit.  
So we don't mind watching from the sidelines, holding on to our isolation. Because the second we let go of the bench, someone comes along and will change the rules of the game forever.  
"Get in."  
Their time was limited and they knew they were soon to be discovered

And thus a new day had begun.  
A lot of the time the days seemed just as long as the nights, but most of the time, it didn't matter, because life didn't matter, time was all they had. Time was all they would ever have, that would truly be theirs.

"Hello." Sierra was a kind soul, you could see it in her eyes. "Hello." Without people surrounding us, we're simple empty creatures, just searching for something, or someone, to fill the void within. "May I sit?" She couldn't remember if that was her seat or not. Victor pulled out the chair and motioned for her to sit. "Where is Echo, she usually sits with us, have you seen her this morning?" With his mouth full of food, Victor shook his head 'no'.

"Where the hell is Boyd Langton?" Adelle yelled through gritted teeth. Laurence stepped into her office. "Oh you've got to be kidding me! Langton's not here either?" Adelle massaged her temples. "Brink and Saunders are missing too." He threw his hands up in defeat and left. "This is not supposed to happen, dolls need to be prepped. I'm the one giving orders around here, you're supposed to fallow my rules!" Laurence stuck in his head through the open door. "You know, that would've been a great speech had anyone actually been listening." He ducked as a coffee mug came flying trough the air. It hit the doorframe and shattered into pieces.

Sierra spotted Echo walking around in a daze. "Echo, we saved you a seat." She approached them slowly. "Good morning." Echo sat her tray down on the table. "And what a good morning it is." Victor added to the conversation when he saw her. "Is it?" Echo didn't know. "What' so good about it?"  
We're all hostiles on the run. Either we're running from something, or we're running to something. What ever it may be, we are all trying to survive. There will always be those moments that will take us to another place.  
Maybe it's wrong of us to see other as predators and pray, maybe it's wrong of us to see ourselves as anything. Maybe every assumption we've had about ourselves or anyone else, is inaccurate.  
If that is the case, then what is the greatest threat to humanity?  
Humanity itself.

At the same coffee shop where Boyd and Echo had been in just the day before, now sat Topher and Claire. "I hope Boyd will be here soon. There's no reason for us to be out of the facility, no reason what so ever, at least not at this hour." Claire was anxious, Topher noticed this as she was twirling her bracelets. "Oh don't worry so much, it'll give you premature wrinkles." Quickly regretting what he had said, Topher tried to change the subject. "So Adelle, she's pretty much a bitch?" They sat in silence and zipped their coffee. No words needed to be spoken, they already knew they were all in trouble.  
The Dollhouse was real, Paul Ballard knew this, their secret was safe, for now.


	9. Adelle DeWitt

Echo's simple existence was beyond her realization. She knew deep down, that she was more than just an _echo_. To Sierra and Victor and the other dolls, she might be Echo, but she also knew that somewhere in there, she was also another lost soul, who'd given up her life for this.  
Someone named Caroline Farrell.  
Her past was a mess.  
After the five years of her body having being used to the fullest, after the five years she had promised the Dollhouse, she would be set free. Caroline could then go back, take care of her mess and make the difference she so desperately was seeking for.

When you run away from something, you're always running towards something else. What ever it is that you choose to do, the answer to the question of weather it's this or that, will always be both. You run away and you run towards, it's as simple as that.  
You don't have to justify your actions every time.

"Hello, Echo." Adelle DeWitt was a woman of class. She was a sophisticated and elegant woman, indeed, who knew no boundaries. "Is the breakfast to your liking today?" Echo looked down at her plate; scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, toast, a fine sliced tomato, a fruit plate and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.  
It was what they always had.  
"It looks very nice, I myself can't handle the pulp." Echo chewed her food carefully. "I like it, it tastes good."  
Adelle lifted the glass; "The pulp you mean?" The doll shook her head. "No, the food, it tastes good. It tastes the way it always has."

Adelle finally saw Echo for what she truly was, a person. She wasn't this helpless child that she had been portrayed to be. In fact, none of them were helpless children, they were people. "You're special, do you know that Echo? You mean a lot to the Dollhouse." Echo held out a piece of bacon in front of her, the fat dripped down. "It doesn't matter if you're special. In here, it doesn't matter. Because being special is not a good thing, not in here it isn't."

Adelle took the glass of orange juice, looked at it briefly, then decided to to go for it. She gulped down and let it swirl around in her mouth for quite a bit.  
"Uh, Adelle? Excuse me for interrupting, but, are you by any chance bored?" Slightly embarrassed, she swallowed the juice and wiped her mouth with Echo's napkin. "Topher. Care to explain where you've been? We are behind schedule. If there's trouble ahead, it's on you. Now go prep."  
Topher swore under his breath. "What was that?" He shook his head and pointed to the stairs that lead to his office. "When you've finished up, I would like to have a word with you, bring Miss Saunders."


	10. Cut to the Chase

"You wanted to see us?" Adelle motioned for them to come in, while she poured herself a drink and finished up her phone call. "Yes, of course. No, not a problem. If it's unusual? Let's just say that a xylophonist is more sought after than what you're asking for." A faint click and the connection was abruptly disconnected. "Bloody hell!" She held out her glass to Topher and Claire. "Oh, no thanks." said Claire and covered her mouth with her hand, as if she were to throw up. "Don't mind if I do. Scotch, on the rocks."

Adelle scoffed and poured him a drink. "Bacardi, there will be no binge drinking in my office, it only ends in rat arsed people hovering over me. I'm not too fond of human conatct, in that particular way and Bob's your uncle."  
Adelle was British, he got it and even though he did not always understand her, all he could do was to pretend. Topher accepted the glass and put on a half ass-ed smile.

"Now, what is it that we do here? What is the purpose of our existence, do you know?" Topher shrugged, while Claire made eye contact with Adelle. "Our business is fantasy fulfillment, the pursuit of pleasure."  
If you'd ask Claire, Adelle had no feelings, she showed no sympathy. Topher knew better. He was the mediator, he often saw himself as the middle hand, the one to set it all straight, the go to guy who would always lend a helping hand to those in need.

"That wasn't my question. Nothing is ever what it appears to be. You think that paradise exists somewhere outside of these walls? Well you're wrong. Of course, you're free to believe in it, but it wouldn't be fair of me to let you continue to look for it. Claire, paradise doesn't exist. Our pursuits of what we wish for, are nothing but never ending quests. What exactly do you think is waiting for you out there?"

Claire didn't know what it was that she was looking for, but she knew that she was never going to be able to find it, by being cooped up there.  
"Whatever it is, it's got to be a hell of a lot better than this!" With that Claire stormed off.

Topher had to finish the battle himself.  
"What I don't think you understand is that, we didn't choose this world, this simply became our world and these people? These people, are our family and home, is just another thing for us to forget about. But you don't make friends, by acting the way you do. What gives you the right to break down someone's endless quest of pursuits? Who died and made you God? You don't know what she's gone through, you don't know. Leave her alone."

Topher was furious, although he did not physically see the rage, he could feel it, boiling inside of him.  
Adelle had stepped on the line and without realizing it, she had crossed over it as well.  
"We can pretend that we don't care, we can say that we're doing it for the good of humanity, because it's what they need. The truth is, that we're scared shit-less of the great unknown. We are slaves of our own impulses, but what makes us human, is what we decide to do. Free will, tell me it doesn't scare you."

Of course it scared him, he was scared beyond words.


	11. Come Undone

"Echo, tell me more about your dreams." Sierra was indeed human, why else would she be so curious. "Your name, Sierra, it's not your real name." Sierra tilted her head. "I'm Sierra and you're Echo." Victor joined in. "Echo, you're scaring us, what's wrong?" The truth was, Echo herself didn't know. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around it. All she knew was that her name was Caroline. Echo couldn't risk it, not now. Since Laurence Dominic little trip to the attic, Echo had been well aware of what to say and what not to. As long as she was safe inside, she was good to go.

"Echo? Would you come with me for a moment?" The pressure was building up, it was getting closer. "Did I do something wrong?" Of course she knew that they would never tell them, if they had. "No, not at all." Adelle DeWitt closed the door to her office, motioned for Echo to sit. "Alright, cut the bullshit, I'm sick of you taking the piss out of what we do and what you have committed to doing. This is not a game."  
She would try to cover up the damage and pat out all the burises. Running down the same road was all she knew how to, but Echo had a bad feeling.  
"Just this one time, let's turn the tables around. How were you able to sleep while you heard Sierra cry at night? How could you dream, when you knew I was having nightmares? That you can even walk with your head held high, after everything you've taken away from people, that disgusts me more than anything."

They weren't dumb, they weren't blind. They were all just sitting in Adelle's cells waiting for the green light. What they seem to always forget, was that Adelle wasn't in charge of everything, she wasn't the master mind behind the Dollhouse. One foot wrong and she would fall.  
If it was bad, it wasn't always her fault.  
"Trust me when I say this Echo, I understand your frustration." Understand? How could she understand it. She could pretend to, isn't that what we always do? We pretend we feel the pain, we pretend we know what it's like walking in someone elses' shoes. It's all pretend. Pretending is what in the end gets us into trouble.

It was usually a load of bull and sure, sometimes close can be too close. But sometimes, just sometimes, that invasion of personal space can be exactly what you need. "You don't seem to understand. You wanted to do everything. I re created you Caroline, I made you into Echo. You can do anything, you can go anywhere, you can be anything, anyone. So look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't want to do it anymore. That you don't want to do everything."

There was no understanding and there was no pretending, this was life. This was what the world had come down to, breaking down the human race until there was no one left. "Margaret." Adelle looked up at Echo, putting her stack of papers back down on the desk. "What did you just say?" Echo pointed a finger at her and smirked. "I remember now. Who do you do it for, what do you get out of it? Does it benefit you to watch people suffer? Guess what, I'm not broken. So why don't you take you clean slate and shove it." She got up to leave. "On the contrary Echo, you're far from broken. I make people different, I make you different. Re moulding you, makes me able to help. Do you think I do this because I find it humorous? I want you to get one thing straight, Caroline. You don't know me. I do this for the lonely, the faithless and the torn down, the ones we classify to be experts at taking the fall. It's for believing, if only for its sake. It's for the ones who stand, the ones who get up and try again."

Life was worth fighting for, why else would she feel so passionately about this cause. "I wouldn't trade the pain for what I've learned. I'm not frightened at all." Echo too felt numb to the pain, to everything. She wanted to thank Adelle for tearing her a part. From here, it was going to take a lot to hold on. She was a long way from happy indeed. Did Echo classify as one of the lonely? Was she seeking to find, to only in the end be let down time after time. Should she be surprised? She would try to remember, then try to forget, only to come to the conclusion that she would never be the same again.

"You know there are more Dollhouses, identical to this one, there's probably even another you." Through all the struggle there's always a bright road at the end of the tunnel. "Another Echo?" _It sucks when you're the one responsible for exposing someone you care about, to the shitty side of life. You feel like an idiot._ "No, another Caroline." _We can't get into their minds or their souls, they mean nothing to us. We blink and they're gone._


	12. Rock Bottom

Maybe if Adelle had never said those words to her; _Another Caroline_, then maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't feel like time had deserted her. Because time waits for no one, all we could ever ask for, is time.  
Today she will be nothing, tomorrow she will be nothing and yesterday she was nothing, but one day she will be.

It was crowded inside of her head and sometimes she couldn't even make sense, the voices were taking over. Split personality? More like activated doll. What you don't know won't hurt you and sometimes the lies might be true. She shouldn't have t feel like this. Twenty something and at war, with herself.

Forget everything you know about real life, because believe it or not, real life is just a random movie with someone's finger glued to fast forward.  
They say that storms have women names, because when they come, they're strong and when they leave, they take everything with them. Echo wasn't like that, she wasn't a storm.

"I want you to always remember, that I made you an offer. Your life, for your life. It's no longer about _'actions having consequences.'_ Whatever you do, can help you. If you want to get out of here, you need to start thinking about yourself. No matter how much you twist and turn the situation, it's always going to lead back to 'Echo', but if you want to change that, you need to take action, without worrying about the consequences, because there will always be consequences."

Maybe Adelle was right, or maybe she was wrong. Maybe it didn't matter anymore. Right or wrong couldn't matter less. God created the world in seven days and ours can be shattered in a matter of seconds. _'One more day, keep on pushing, just one more day.'_

"It's always someone elses' dream coming true, you never think that it will happen to you. You hope and you dream and when it actually happens, it's nothing like what it is in the movies. You just want it to feel different, more real even. It never does. I was 10 years old when this hit me. Haven't chased a dream since. If you want something, you have to go after it with all you've got. You don't let anything, or _anyone_, get in the way of your wants. You don't stop till it's yours. Echo, I want you to know that getting what you want, by being productive, forward and direct, has nothing to do with persuasion."

Echo knew in her heart, that she would rather die for the truth, than stay. When the rest of the world would walk out, she would still be there, she had made that promise to herself a long time ago and she was sticking to it. The world could strip her of everything and she would always have one thing left.

Caroline was once a happy woman, she lived by doing what makes one happy, being with who makes you smile, laughing as much as you breathe and loving as long as you live. Unlike Echo, she had a life that she was proud of.  
Echo would feel the pain tomorrow, lingering in her thoughts. Like it usually does, always going on and off.

Adelle led Echo back to the common room. She slightly brushed the hair, hanging down over her face, behind her ears and lifted her chin and whispered; _'No more games.'_

Echo felt torn, torn between the life she once knew and the one she was forced to live. All she wanted now, was to feel the rain on her skin again.

"Echo?" It was Topher and he looked worried. _'Is he worried about me?'_  
"Come here, I need to talk to you, I need you to know this, before… I just need you to know." _'Before what? What is he trying to tell me?' _  
He took her hands in his and gave them a squeeze, to let her know that he meant business. "There will be times in your life when you will lose your way, no matter how lost you get on that journey of yours, no matter how alone you feel, never forget that home will always be where the heart is. As long as your heart is beating, you'll know that you're alive. It's okay to lose your way, just don't lost yourself. This world is full of people who hide behind their masks, they hide their real character and then reveals it by hiding." She looked up and smiled weakly at him.

"To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best day and night, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." That was when Echo decided to make the present so beautiful, that it would be worth the memory. "E.E. Cummings." The fact that she had known that, put a smile on Topher's face. _'My type of girl.'_

And when she went to sleep that night, Echo was all alone, the lights were turn out and it was all the same darkness.


End file.
